Name: Another Good Currie Powder
Ingredients: 8 oz coriander seed; 4 oz turmeric; 2 oz powdered ginger; 1 teaspoon pounded mace; 1 oz cummin seed; 2 oz fenugreek; 1 oz mushroom powder

Why it works: Turmeric and fenugreek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 229 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Another Good Currie Powder

Ingredients

Directions

Make the powder

Grind all ingredients together until finely powdered.

Store

Store in an airtight container away from light.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Turmeric + fenugreektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together229 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,776 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,253 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Coriander + fenugreektop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together236 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Coriander seed: Provides the bulk of the curry powder's citrusy, warm aroma.
Turmeric: Gives the powder its yellow colour and earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
Powdered ginger: Adds warm, peppery aroma and a touch of heat.
Fenugreek: Contributes a distinctive bittersweet, maple-like aroma.
Cummin seed: Adds earthy, warm aroma typical of curry blends.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, mushroom):

Cuminfits better
Cardamomfits better
Fennelfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, turmeric, ginger, fenugreek, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.